Sopranos Finale

Americans love drama, tragedy and complaining. And it's in our nature to play the devil's advocate.

Which is why everyone is whining about the way "The Sopranos" ended last night.

I was more surprised and confused than disappointed. I don't mind the blood, but I don't need it either. And considering "The Sopranos" will go down as HBO's best-ever drama, if not its best original series entirely, the hype and anticipation leading up to the finale had expectations set pretty high.

But the only violence we saw in the 62-minute closer was when Phil got whacked. Sure there were some other excruciatingly quiet moments that were uncomfortable enough to make even the laziest couch potatoes -- and I'm merely guessing here -- sit up straight. That it ended, however, with the family of four sitting happily in the booth of a dive restaurant before the screen cut to black makes me think HBO is leaving room for a big-screen finish in a year or two.

I really did, for a minute, think that Time Warner Cable picked a terrible time to experience technical difficulties, but that's exactly what HBO wanted.

What do you think?